Posts Tagged ‘bethesda’
E3 2019: Bethesda Impressions
Click on image to see briefing.
Fred is again joined by Andy (42 Level One), Chip (The B-Team), and Chase (Scarcasm Live) to discuss the short, but sweet, set of Bethesda announcements.
Want the announcements as a simple bullet points list? Click here.
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth Review
I remember the first time I read Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft. I had come to it thanks to the Metallica song of the same name off the Ride the Lightning album, which intrigued me because the song had no lyrics despite being based off of a work of writing. Some had touted it as a quintessential bit of horror fiction to rival even the strongest authors of today while others made the predictable claim that it was too disjointed from contemporary times to be relevant, let alone scary. I came away feeling a bit of both. Much of the concepts of the work are for your head to create, but that’s also what made it so horrifying, it was indescribable. Dark Corners of the Earth tries to bring an author and storyline that has dodged popular culture, widespread film, and of course video games for so long. It’s one of the first instances where an interactive medium has attempted to bring Lovecraft’s world to life, no easy feat. It’s not even based off of the main story Call of Cthulhu – although Lovecraft fans are used to the co-branding for various alternative works – but rather the novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth that details a town in New England that has isolated itself from the US. Ultimately the town is inhabited by sea creatures and ancient beings, which is now brought to life with a twist in an unreliable narrator that wavers in sanity. While Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth bites off a bit more than it can chew in overall design, not to mention the odd breaking point in the middle where it literally shifts genres, your ability to keep pace with it results in what could be one of the strongest horror video games of all time.
Podcast: Call of Cthulhu Dark Corners of the Earth Game Club
There is no writer quite like H.P. Lovecraft and there’s definitely not a whole lot of games like Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. A divisive title that is seen by some a tiresome game of pointless challenges while others revere it as the quintessential horror video game. Fred and Jam delve into the design, development, and campaign of this unique horror title.
I Have to Accept That I Don’t Like Dishonored
Sometimes a game comes along that is almost universally loved. People sing its praises, the critics all give it good scores, you’re called a “troll” if you don’t like it, and the gaming world refuses to accept any other opinion. As with all games, there will be an inevitable minority that don’t like the game, for whatever reason, and it’s only a matter of time before you find yourself in this predicament. In my case, it’s with Dishonored. Arkane Studios gorgeous 2012 first person stealth title about a man named Corvo rescuing a girl named Emily was beloved across the board. Garnering a 90 percent Metacritic and just about the same score across most of the major US and European publications gave little reason to not think this was a masterpiece. It would go on to win several Game of the Year awards as well as industry awards and had the sales to back up the hype. There’s no reason not to play Dishonored, no matter what game you’re into. Except for me. I am consistently infuriated by this game and it sucks that I don’t like it. I want to like this game, I should like this game, but I just don’t. Here’s my story as to just how hard I tried to convince myself that I should like this title. It is not a review.
Dishonored Play Diary
Trying something new here. Dishonored is a game I (Fred) have not been able to play properly and the first video in this series shows why. As a result, I’m trying to be more laid back and complete the title without worrying about perfect stealth and perfect pacifism. Instead of a “Let’s Play” I’ve decided to do a new type of series called a “Play Diary” and here’s what these will be. This video series currently only has one video, but will update as it grows. No new posting will be created for each video. If you want updates, I recommend subscribing to Fred’s channel.
Let’s Play videos are tough because the person playing them has to constantly be speaking to an audience, it stifles gameplay, and it’s a bunch of work to get live. A longplay is easy because you just capture and upload, but only a handful of people watch it. We’ve noticed that the commentary gets more views, but that people watch them for short periods, whereas a longplay is only seen by a smaller group but they watch often to entirety. The Play Diary starts with a full length “quick look” of an hour or two with commentary followed by update videos that are about 5-15 minutes that cover several hours of gameplay and commentary. In addition, the entire longplay is uploaded as a playlist for those that want to see the full playthrough. Hopefully this is a more user friendly way for everyone to see what they want. This will not completely replace my “Let’s Play” videos because certain rare games will want to be viewed from start to finish. The video below is the playlist for the diary and the longplay playlist can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlLaoX7aLm9_32Aqpog3OgW2ZenWg_mV8
E3 2016: All Games Bethesda Press Conference Impressions
Bethesda comes out swinging with reveals of Quake Champions, Prey (reboot), and VR as well as updates on Fallout 4, Elder Scrolls Online, Doom, Legends, Dishonored 2, and of course Skyrim Special Edition on consoles. The All Games crew has a massive 8 person discussion on what was seen and what we think.
Podcast: Press Button to Kick
This week is all about Bethesda, although oddly enough we’re probably the only podcast not heavily discussing Fallout. Based in Maryland and created in 1986, Bethesda Softworks came a long way and developed many games (some more ambitious than others) before landing into the open world frenzies the company is known for today.
The Making of Fallout New Vegas
Many of you are probably as psyched and Jam was to hear about the announcement of Fallout 4. Many consider the true Fallout series developers were creators Black Isle Studios (Fallout and Fallout 2 on PC), which is why fans appreciated Fallout 3 but were more psyched for Fallout New Vegas. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, largely made up of former Black Isle members, Fallout New Vegas was more like the original Fallout titles adapted to the newer and more shiny Fallout 3 engine. The limited edition of the game contained many fun items, some you care about and some you don’t. Of those, the most interesting is a bonus disc chronicling the development of Obisidan’s new take on the post apocalyptic wasteland and more importantly Las Vegas in that land. Above is the 8-part, almost an hour documentary on Fallout New Vegas.
The Evil Within Review
The Evil Within is the stuff nightmares are made of. I’m not being dramatic, almost everything in this game will cater to the popular nightmares that plague humanity – in my case that happens to be clowns – and throws them right in your face. That’s not to say it is a scary game, because unlike other contemporaries the goal of The Evil Within is to disturb you and create tension rather than grab you with a quick jump scare (although it can’t resist the urge to do that as well at times). Bundled altogether it creates the closest representation of a haunted house without forgetting that it’s also a video game and therefore can make death a reality for all parties involved. This would be a fantastic reality for the definitive horror experience if it weren’t for the abundance of setbacks that range from visuals, to AI, and even creep into gameplay that no matter how big a fan you are just cannot be ignored.
Gaming History 101 